Daily lunch dates were the norm for retired mechanic Clarence Purvis and his wife Carolyn.
โThey were unbelievable,โ restaurant owner Joyce James told CBS News. โI mean you could tell that they adored each other.โ
They ate together at Smithโs restaurant in Reidsville, Georgia six days a week for years until Carolyn passed away.
โSheโs a perfect wife if ever been one,โ Clarence told CBS News. โAinโt nobody loved one another more than we loved one another. Everybody said that.โ
But just because his wife passed away, didnโt mean that Clarence couldnโt continue to have lunch with her.
After heading to the cemetery every morning at the age of 93 and kneeling down to give her a kiss, Clarence would bring a picture of his wife to their restaurant so he could eat lunch with her.
โBaby, I wish you could go home with me. Iโd trade places with you,โ he would tell her picture.
Clarence and Carolyn met in 1948 and were inseparable ever since.
โAinโt nobody loved one another more than me and my wife loved one another,โ Clarence told WTOC 11. โI wanted what she wanted and she wanted what I wanted.โ
After lunch, Clarence would return to his wifeโs gravesite. He would go there four or five times a day until he wasnโt able to drive.
And when Smithโs Restaurant closed, he just found a new restaurant where he could eat lunch with his wifeโs picture.
โWe tried to cook for him or take him, nope. It wasnโt nothing but the Dairy Queen,โ his daughter Dianne Knight said.
And the story only gets more romantic from there. Inside his home, is their love lamp.
A lamp that is always kept on to remind him of the eternal flame of love between him and his wife.
โThis here, that lamp ainโt never turned off, not since she came out of the hospital five months before she passed,โ Clarence said. โThat light was turned on and it ainโt never been turned off.โ
The story about Clarence and Carolynโs love ended up being picked up by the media after a photo of Clarence and his wifeโs picture at the restaurant went viral making their love story known around the world.
Clarence ended up joining his wife in heaven in 2021.
โHe became world-known just to show his love for his wife, how much she meant to him,โ Dianne Knight said.
โAnd that was the environment we grew up in all our life,โ son Dale Purvis said.
And Clarenceโs children are glad that their parentsโ story was told.
โThatโs what this world needs today. The kind of love that they had for one another,โ said Dianne.
They are even happier now that the two of them are together again.
โThe pictures of him after momma passed, you hardly saw him smile. As opposed to when we had pictures of him before. But now heโll be smiling all the time,โ said Dale.
Learn more about this special love story in the video below.
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